With Guardians Watching
by Sonea66
Summary: Together with his familiars Harry makes his way into the world of politics and war. But he isn't coming unprepared. He is charismatic, powerful, smart and knows what he wants. The world never suspected for Voldemort to have set them up. SLASH,Neville-BWL


_**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. and various publishers. I am in no way trying to make profit with it.**_

With Guardians Watching

**Beginning to Gather**

On an unplottable island in the middle of the ocean, a boy was standing in front of a mirror, trying fruitlessly to straighten up his hair, messy beyond help.

"_I don't know why you even bother."_ came the helpful comment from Donovan (1), a shadowpanther, and one of three familiars of the boy.

Despite general believe that one can only have one familiar, it is quite possible to have more than that. A familiar represents magical power, and because an average wizard has only so much magic, they end up believing it impossible to have more. It might have something to do with the fact that the last person known to have multiple familiars was Merlin himself. Though, even without proof, the boy had reason to believe that Voldemort had also more than one.

Donovan himself had icy blue eyes, a sleek, black pelt with purple sheen, and, when standing, reached up to the breast of the still growing boy. Shadows clung to him, signifying his power over them, and making the picture more intimidating than it should have been.

"Well, at least I am making an effort!" was the irate reply of the boy, annoyed at his less than satisfying endeavor.

Giving up his quest for tidiness and deeming himself fit to go; he stepped out of the mansion situated on the highest point on the island. Donovan strolled behind his master, asking in a blasé manner_: "Where is the snake?"_

The boy stiffened: "I forgot."

"_Damn right you forgot about me!"_ hissed an irate snake, having had the presence of mind to make sure to be there even without prompting on the boy's part.

Without taking a breath, the serpent proceeded to immerse himself in a rant. It was a fine specimen of an Arctic Occamy. Different from its Indian counterpart, it didn't have any legs, as they would have only gotten in the way of it, in the freezing climate of its birthplace. Its scales didn't seem to have a particular pattern, being mostly in aquatic and icy colors, with little gray and sky blue flecks here and there. Its wings were a majestic snow white, with silvery tips, reminding slightly of a phoenix, were it not for the colors. At its 9 feet length, it looked impressive.

What truly struck people however, were the glowing, crimson eyes. The air around it seemed to get colder to the touch, reminding one of its control over ice and cold.

The rant went on all the way out of the anti-apperation and -portkey wards, at the head of the island, shaped after the gigantic turtle it was situated on. Finally the boy cut the occamy off, with a sharply offered:"Nilak! (2) Stop! I apologize, it won't happen again."

Sniffing haughtily, and purposefully ignoring the smile it elicited, it turned its attention to the front, where a big beast awaited them. Rurik3 was the third, and last, familiar of the boy, and, standing at 9 feet, he was by far the biggest of them all. It was a Nightmare/Thestral/Nundu hybrid. His torso was a bright crimson color, and was obviously taken from his nundu genes, reminding of a jaguar. His hind legs were from the nightmare side of the family, black, horse looking legs, hooves surrounded by fire. Likewise was his tail, burning in red of all shades. Protruding out of his back was a pair of leathery wings, reminding of a thestral, also in pitch black. Matching this appearance were two shadowy, dark eyes, sitting in a skull unique to himself, crossing that of a wildcat and reptilian.

Like a thestral, he was only visible to those who have been in contact with death. Even then, it had the ability to stay hidden from the eyes of mortals when he so desired, an effect of combining nightmare and thestral blood. Another quirk of his was his power over fear; it was something similar to killing intent. Lastly was his breath, which, like that of a full blooded nundu, was poisonous and carried disease. He was still growing, for he, like ligers, didn't have the gene to stop.

All three never distanced themselves further than fifty meter from their master, making it necessary to take them with him to his shopping. His Hogwarts letter had just arrived, and he was going to pick up his supplies on his annual inspection of accounts. Lifting his ring, while nearly being choked by Nilak, who had slithered under his robes to stay out of sight, and holding onto Rurik, he intoned clearly: "Gringotts"

And with that they were gone, Donovan following through the shadows.

Harry's POV:

I reappeared in front of a building made purely out of white marble. Only dwelling long enough for Dolovan to appear out of my shadow, I strode straight through the doors, not granting the poem the time of the day, nodding, without stopping, to the guarding goblins. Time is money, and in Gringotts one better makes a show of wanting to be economical.

Donovan stayed hidden in the shadows, so one couldn't see him without knowing he was there, and Rurik stayed invisible, making sure to not come in contact with anybody, a feat with his size.

I came to a halt in front of a teller, not waiting to be acknowledged, speaking in short, clipped sentences, as not to waste the valuable time of the Goblin. The only time an unneeded word found its way into my speech was when I spoke the name of the creature in front of me, the only show of respect wanted. In return, Prickpike, who had a talent for the detail, kept himself short as well, not even bothering to speak, making due with gestures.

I went from vault to vault, examining the security as I went. Sometimes, I'd take something with me, a book here, some jewelry there. Before long I was done, just finishing up at my trust fund, which, actually, was useless, now that I had access to the family vaults.

My shopping went similarly fast, me being extremely practical. The majority of the books could be found in my library, used, but in good condition. Cauldrons, dragon hide gloves, crystal vials and telescopes were to be found at home as well, even robes were going to be used second hand; it would not do to use money uselessly. Sure, I was the second richest wizard in Britain, and the seventh richest in the world, but money had me feeling safe, and the more money I had, the more safety I had. I generally didn't use money if I had a choice in it.

After stocking up on parchment, ink and quills, for assignments, else he would be using their muggle counterparts, cheaper and more practical; I went to the apothecary, choosing every ingredient individually, since the kits sold for the purpose of school were usually of inferior quality.

Having everything I needed from Diagon, I quickly went into Knockturn Alley. Wizards were advised to buy their wands at Ollivander's, because for the average wizard they usually fit well enough, and the quality was second to none, but I was no average wizard, and I think we already established my magical power is far above normal. That needed a custom wand, else I would risk blowing the wand up.

As a bonus, these wands didn't have tracking spells placed on them. Of course they became just that much more expensive. I did say I keep the money for safeties sake, and no money in the world was going to help me with my head blown off. Better cough up a little more for a tool to save one's life many times in the future. So, after getting advice from my contacts, I ended up here.

A Victorian looking building, three floors, loomed in front of me, having an entirely too bright atmosphere for such a gloomy place. The heavy doors made no sound when I pushed them open, making me all too aware of my own footfalls. Inside it was lofty, clean, and looked like a homey sitting room, taken right out from a movie. There was only one door leading from the room, opposite from the entrance, and it stood currently open. Nobody was in sight.

Carefully, so as not to disturb the silence, I made my way across the room. I was just about to take a look at what was behind the door, when a girl, not looking older than 14, jumped out in front of me and proceeded to glomp me. She seemed like the overly affectionate type. '_No, you don't mean that? What gave it away?' _a sarcastic stray thought made its way to the forefront of my mind, only to be brushed aside immediately after.

Nilak hissed, agitated at being disturbed, and the girl hastily backed off. "I am so sorry!" She didn't sound sorry at all. "It's just been so long since I last had a customer!"

My first thought about her was that she was too cheerful and chirpy. The girl was short, extremely so, only 4 foot 7 inches tall, wore a neon orange and grass green muggle dress and a pair of purple boots, reaching her calves, and had the most particular hot pink eyes. Electric blue hair finished the most eccentric look I had ever seen, topping even the pictures of Dumbledore I had.

The surprising thing was she could pull off the look. Even while I was taking all that in, I came to the conclusion that she was no wizard. To wear muggle clothing in Knockturn, you either had to be suicidal, insanely powerful, non-human or any combination of the three. Add to that the eyes and joyous attitude and you get where I am coming from.

"Two familiars, I see." She commented, bringing me back to reality.

Following where she pointed, I came face to face with Rurik, staring through the window. So she wasn't mortal either.

"What would it take to get an oath? That was supposed to stay secret."

"You could give me some ingredients. For wands, you know."

"Two, and no more."

"Three."

"One."

"Two it is."

After me receiving the oath, and her receiving her ingredients, two tail hairs of Rurik, she began explaining: "The wands I make are made of components of the familiars of the person having the wand made, some blood of said person, wood of some kind of magical tree, some metal, at least one stone as focus, another core, taken from my stores, and three runes, customized. Since you have two familiars-"

"Three actually."

"-three, then, you will have to get three wands."

Thoughtfully, I asked: "And the prize?"

"Depending on the ingredients, 20 to 50 galleons each."

"And why can't I just buy one and be done with it?"

"Because the familiars need to be balanced."

Sighing in defeat I agreed, hoping against all hope that it wouldn't get too expensive.

"So tell me, what kind of familiars are we talking about? What kind of breed is that out there? Where is the third one?"

Before she could go on in that annoyingly chipper voice, I interrupted: "A cross of nightmare, thestral and nundu, a shadowpanther and an occamy." Signaling Donovan to come out of hiding, and beckoning Nilak to do the same, I never expected to hear a squeal, nearly deafening me.

"It's been centuries since I last worked with those creatures!" Excitedly chattering, she dragged me out of the doorway and down a pair of stairs. I found myself in a kind of workroom, tidier than anticipated, with walls full of shelves, filled with boxes of all shapes and sizes. In the middle of the room was a workbench.

"Go on; choose whatever you feel drawn to."

Taking a breath, I closed my eyes, trying to feel a pull. It took solid 8 minutes for me to feel it. Concentrating hard, so as not to forget the feeling, I made my way over to a corner. There I took a little, square container. Soon a new pull came, leading me to another side of the room. It went on like that, 16 times in total. When I opened my eyes again, I looked into the grinning face of the girl, Gianelle4, her name was. "I took the liberty to harvest the ingredients from your familiars." She chirped.

I looked on as she first grinded a fang from Donovan, then the claw of a griffin, a werewolf fang and lastly the fang of a grim. Mentally I winced at that. Any components of grims are damn high in price, because anybody who sees one is going to die.

Then she took the powder of both the fang of the shadowpather and griffin claw and mixed them soundly with liquid nundu breath, taken from Rurik, making a now vicious mass. She did the same with the werewolf powder and some poison from Nilak, while the fang of the grim ended up in some blood of Donovan.

Taking my hand, she slit my wrist open and took a quite substantial amount of blood, distributing even amounts to the various mixtures, before healing me and giving me a little blood replenishing potion.

She set aside both the panther blood and the nundu mixture to concentrate on the last liquid. She braided the hair of a centaur, a heartstring of Donovan and a long piece of skin taken from the wing of Rurik, afterwards soaking them in the poison fluid. After a short while, she separated the fluid and cores, instead letting the wood for this wand, a branch of the tree of wisdom, found in the Sahara, soak up the rest of the poison.

"Because the tree was in such a dry environment, it tends to take in all the fluid it can get, even any humidity the air could have had." was all Gianelle said to that.

Next, she carefully drilled a hole into the wood. Instead of risking damaging the cores, she used a spell to make the space bigger than it actually was, not unlike the magically expanded trunks that are so popular these days. The rest went easy; she simply used a magic string to drag the braid into the hole and hold it in place, and cancelled the expansion charm. It was a snug fit. I couldn't help but wonder about the holes, I had never seen a wand with holes in them. She took come of the gold ore I chose (or was it the ore that chose me) and melted it. When it was runny, she simply poured it over the pale green, almost white, wood.

Catching my curious look, she explained: "The wand knows how it wants to look, and the innate magic does the rest."

And what she said proved genuine, I watched as the gold made intricate patterns on the wood, not hiding all of it, but encasing substantial parts of it. When it was done, and cooled down a little, I could clearly see quite a few diamond shapes. Though, the holes were still there.

She took a rather big block of jade, one of the stones I chose, and gouged a hole just big enough to have space for the end of the wand. That's also where it ended up.

In fascination, I gazed at the happenings before me. The unshapely block of green stone was reshaping itself right in front of me, till it wasn't a block anymore, but a handle.

Next she took a little amber, not bigger than the tip of my little finger, and simply held it to the tip of the wand in making. I could see her other hand glowing in a green light, and look and behold, the actually dead wood began to grow, wrapping around the little piece of fossilized resin.

The girl studied both me and the wand intently, before meticulously carving the runes for Mind, Life and Moon into the wood not encased in gold, into three of the diamond shapes, the biggest of them, vertical from tip to end. Beaming at me, she handed it over to me, ordering while she did: "Give it a wave!"

When I did, a lot of gold sparks flew out, making constellations around a green miniature moon. The rush of power was somehow both refreshing and exhilarating, and ruthlessly shattering, seeming to whisper of facts of life, things unknown and riddles of the future.

Satisfied with her work, she went on to the next wand, but I wasn't paying attention, examining the wand. It wasn't the longest of them all, only 8,5 inches long, but beautiful, with its green and gold theme. Gianelle told me that it is good for mind magicks, healing, charms and divination.

Another hour later, I was the proud owner of three wands. The second wand was made out of mithril, arctic bloodroot, my blood, liquid nundu breath, a feather of Nilak, Donovan's fang, griffin claw, a ruby haft, diamond focus and the runes for Ice, Death and Blood. Supposedly good for transfiguration, offensive magic and blood magicks. It was longer than the last one, 10 inches, and in a beautiful mix of blood red and silvery-white.

The last wand was made of black steel, the seed of a moon ebony, apparently she grew it from scratch, my blood, Donovan's blood, a scale of Nilak, some hair from Rurik, the fang of a grim, an onyx for the handle and a black diamond focus. The runes meant Darkness, Protection and Bonds. I was told that it is good for defense, dark arts and rituals. It was the longest of the three, 13 inches, and fashioned all in black.

I was so satisfied, I was almost contend to give away the 137 Galleons, 9 Sickles and 21 Knuts it cost me. Almost being the keyword. In the end I grudgingly parted with the money and left in direction home, mourning the loss of perfectly innocent coins.

-ø-

The soft flapping of wings could be heard by those who knew it was there, even over the racket of King's Cross.

Rurik was flying a couple of feet over my head, making sure to stay hidden. Donovan was, like always, lurking in my shadow, able to materialize at a moment's notice. Nilak was once again hidden under my clothes, it just wouldn't do to scare the poor muggles.

It was September the first, and like all students, I was obliged to come to school using the train. I sneered at a family of redheads, shouting about muggles, noting the fact that the pair of twins seemed to have similar thoughts about it. They were smarter than they let on.

Casually I strolled down the train station, making sure nobody was watching, and leaned into the barrier, gliding through it. Once on the right platform I made haste for an empty compartment. I found one in the middle, and stored my second hand trunk there.

I made sure my wands were hidden, one on my back, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice, the blood wand, and one on my calf, the gold wand, and one on my wrist, the black wand, and also the wand I would use openly. Finding everything in order, I settled down with a book on animagi, written by my father and his friends, charmed to look like a copy of Hogwarts, a history.

I didn't have to wait long for the first person to disturb the comfortable silence of my compartment. Looking up from my book, I gave him a look that clearly stated '_there better be a reason for this_'. Hastily he explained himself: "I was wondering if I could sit here, I don't want to go to Hogwarts not knowing anybody. Michael Corner, by the way."

He was of average height, but showed promise of becoming tall. His build was broad and met a relatively slim waist. His hair was a dark brown, almost black, color and brushed his shoulders in big waves. His eyes were dark as well, and held a mysterious light. His skin was a healthy, light shade, matching his otherwise dark appearance.

Nodding slowly, I pointed on the seat in front of me, not offering my name. He would learn it soon enough. He saw what I was reading, or what he thought he was reading, and began a rather one sided conversation. Of course I read a copy of it, and made sure to nod at all the right times. He didn't seem to mind my silent nature.

Ten minutes before departure another knock was heard. It was a dirty blond Hufflepuff, and judging from his height a fourth or fifth year. His hair was greasy, acne littered his face, he used his fringe to hide behind and his posture was slightly hunched over. He seemed the kind that was easily bullied. But there was potential! His strong jaw had a masculinity to it that could be distinctly handsome, would he just smile. He seemed to be just before a growth spurt, and after that he would have a smashing body. He seemed to do sport, based on the toned muscles hidden behind slightly baggy robes. His eyes shone with hidden intelligence.

This was something to work with. He seemed shy, normal for people regularly downtrodden. Before he could flee, I bid him in: "Come, take a seat." I even helped him with his trunk. He introduced himself as Cedric Diggory, and soon we sat together, me having packed away my reading material, two of us talking and me listening and me putting in my own two cents here and there.

I knew I had a kind of authority over people, compelling them to do as I said, and a charm making people want me to like them, if I so wished. It came natural to me, my charisma. It came to no surprise that, when I spied them, the pair of twins I saw before obeyed without question when I requested of them to join me.

It became apparent soon that Michael held a love for potions and riddles, Cedric had a talent for Quidditch and always wanted to be popular and the twins held a hidden distain for most of their family, bar their two older brothers, and their biggest wish was to open a joke shop.

Halfway to Hogwarts I said, with as much conviction as I could have: "I can help you."

Silence followed. I pointed at the pranksters. "I could help you with your shop. I can invest, and am good at management."

Next I pointed at Cedric. "I can teach you how to be charismatic. I can make you popular."

And last I pointed at Michael. "You are hiding what you really are. I can help you… sustain yourself. And lastly, I can offer you all a sanctuary."

Their first reaction was disbelieve. Understandable, a first year, not yet sorted, offered them just their deepest desires. After they saw the truth in my eyes, and registered the full conviction I spoke with, came hope. Lastly came suspicion.

One of the twins, Fred I believe, voiced that doubt: "What do you get out of this?"

"For one, as your investor I get a hefty chunk out of your winnings." 'Else I wouldn't have offered you my sweet, innocent money.' "And else you shouldn't worry, in time all will be repaid." Here I gave them a serene smile. "If you really want to do something in return, be my friend no matter what house I get sorted into."

That marked the beginning of my movement for influence. I wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived; I had to work for my reward.

1 Donovan – Celtic name meaning 'strong fighter'

2Nilak – Inuit name meaning 'piece of fresh water ice'

3Rurik – Slavic name meaning 'red'

4Gianelle – Hebrew name meaning 'God is gracious'


End file.
